D&DDR
(From I’m Blue, by Annie Carlson)
Y’know, I was wondering about that, too. The leveling weirdness hadn’t struck me in my wonders, but I was anyway wondering about the potential wonders of D&D Online. I’m not sure I’d enjoy it as any sort of alternative to the pen and paper game, because nothing quite meets the fun of that.
My friend Alex and I would have conversations that went like this. We’d discuss preposterous rules ideas and regulations that may happen in our games. More often, our preposterous rules would come up in our games themselves.
For example, I ran a campaign that featured three of my friends as players. Each of their characters a near perfect reflection of who they were. Alex was playing a sometimes alignment betraying Human Paladin, Charlie was playing a Dwarven Barbarian with a gruff exterior, and Addison was playing a quite feminine Elven Bard (I think it was a Bard). There was a scene where the Alex and Charlie, who had been previously duo-adventuring, meet their newest companion Addison in the makeshift brig of a militia’s outpost. Immediately, Charlie lets loose with the Elf slurs and jabs, followed by hocking a loogie in Addison’s direction.
Now, spitting on people is harder than it looks in my experience. I’ve tried to spit on folk before and failed. So I deduced that it was a skill one could develop. Therefore, I made Charlie roll a ranged touch attack. And he missed, so it landed on the ground. Addison decided he wants to spit on Charlie in retaliation. So, I made him roll a ranged touch attack for spitting on Charlie. And wouldn’t you know it, he rolled a 20. We were laughing our asses off. I made Addison roll again, to see if it was indeed a critical hit. And he rolled another 20. At this point we were in stitches. And I made Addison roll one more time to see if it was an instant kill. Sadly, Addison did not roll another 20, but it was still a critical hit, and I made Charlie take 3 Points of Subdual Damage. From that day forward, it was known as the “Critical Loogie.”
Then there was the time I made Alex roll all his Reflex, Fortitude and Will saves for sex. He failed his Will Save. Let’s just say the maiden was pretty disappointed.
That’s what makes D&D such a great game to me, the memories and stories of the random games in the past. Something I doubt D&D Online can recapture. And I’m impressed, regardless, that Blue and Lisa could have such a detailed conversation while playing DDR. I’m so focused when playing that game, I can’t talk at all. But Blue and Lisa seem like some multitaskable gals.
18 Awesome Points™ for Annie… for all the memories… *sniff*
June 3rd, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Heh. Whee! My pleasure. ::grin:: I tried to make it seem like Lisa is having a little more trouble and Blue’s handling it with more skill (then again, she’s doing much less of the talking, too). Suffice to say, they’re playing on Light mode - I would call this sucker a warmup. They’re certainly not doing Paranoia, I tell you what ::laugh::
Anyhow. Thankee. You know, I wish we’d gotten more time to just sit down and hang out when you were visiting, to tell geeky stories of sheer dorkitude. Next year you gotta get here early to chill. ::grin::
“Critical loogie”… that’s hilarious. I’ma remember that one. ::laugh::
June 4th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
I always prefer to play Neverwinter Nights. I get all of the D&D dorkiness without the desire to punch someone in the face
June 5th, 2005 at 2:14 am
Not the same. You can’t so much tell stories from NWN, or they’re not the same… they’re ones people have heard before, because if they’ve played it they know that part already, and if they haven’t they won’t know what you’re talking about (OR you just ruined for them, and I know people who’ll start taking off body parts for that)
And you don’t get moments with the DM like THIS:
DM: And there’s some STUFF in here…
me: I don’t like how you just said “stuff.”
DM: Yesssss…
Or player moments like this:
Player: I need to make a Move Silently roll?
DM: Yes.
Player: [rolls a 1] Shit. I fail.
me: Way to go, Solid Snake.
Or monster-related quotes like this:
“It kind of screams in its undead badger way.”
I love games. That’s kind of a “no duh” thing with me. But nothing’s quite like real tabletop D&D action with friends and too much pop and too many Cheetos. Old-school, proper-like.
June 5th, 2005 at 6:11 am
well, sure, the togetherness can be fun at times. But then again, familarity breeds contempt. Contempt breeds making munckins. Making munchkins breeds hatred. These are the things that lead to the Mary-Sue comic.
June 6th, 2005 at 7:52 pm
Uh… I understood the comic despite my pathetic experience with D&D, but I was just delighted with the Eddie Izzard reference. I thought of Simon, the god of hairdos.